Speaking of cairns, and the Lake Solace ones in particular, is there some sort of limit on the number of them you can loot in a day, or something? I've done the Lake Solace achievement across a couple different characters now, and every time, I'll get one blue/purple, a green or two, and then the rest of the cairns just give useless junk items that only sell for 1s. I had one character that got a green item on the first two, and nothing but junk after that.

Is this intended, crappy luck on my part, or something else?

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.

Lake Solace was bugged before the last patch: you'd get the achievement after 4 cairns, and the rest would just give junk. They fixed this in the patch, but I haven't gone there with my alt to see how it works now...

Same here.. I've been doing puzzles/cairns when I was at the zone's level. Most of the time I'd get blues; I got purples twice (both 'of the fortress' though, ffuuuuu), and greens 3 times or so. The weapon my level 45 cleric is using right now was from a level 45 puzzle, which is nice.

If anything you should just do them when you really want some new items, unless you are auctioning or salvaging the item I really don't see how a blue item at level 30 is any better for someone than a blue item at level 23. Either way you get a blue item that you might be able to use for the next X levels.

If anything you should just do them when you really want some new items, unless you are auctioning or salvaging the item I really don't see how a blue item at level 30 is any better for someone than a blue item at level 23. Either way you get a blue item that you might be able to use for the next X levels.

This. Except for those that scale up to 50. Best to wait till 50 for them. It might be a while before you outlevel them.

Clerics, as I understand it, get 75% of their spell power from wisdom and only 25% from intelligence, unlike mages who apparently get 50/50. So I think the additional 25% spell power is probably more valuable than the crit, though I haven't looked into it in enough detail to be certain.

I wouldn't say 1h+shield is necessarily the way to go. I use 2h almost exclusively; there are two mana regen abilities on 1min cooldowns that each get ~60% mana back if you use an ability every GCD. I just alternate them and only run out if I have to spam even justice for more than 15-20 mobs [!] when chain pulling. If you use a shield, your spellpower will be gimped, which makes you do less damage, get less parry from the spellpower->parry talent and do less self-healing. I'd probably use a shield in dungeons to make damage predictable for the healer, but that's about it.

Oh yeah, if you want to go 1h+shield, you have to wastespend at least 6, but up to 11 points in justicar for it to be worth it (precept of refuge, the regen-from-block 5-point talent, and improved precept of refuge is optional). Those points are at a premium when leveling, and you can instead spend it in the shaman or druid trees for shields, better self-healing, extra mana regen (see above) and more damage. Just my opinion, though.

e: when soloing, the only attack I use (except when killing solo mobs, which is slow and kind of bad in a justicar build -- go inquis for that) is Even Justice, which kills 5 mobs at a time...

I never had mana issues while playing a two handed justicar. Pop the mana regen ability at 60% and you are good to go. Soloing that is. In prolonged rift battles I use the occasional mana potion through a cooldown but that's really rare.Unless you are tanking I can't really think of why you'd use a one hander and a shield. It slows you down.

Does anyone know what level the various puzzles scale to? I know Freemarch stops at 20, and I think Stonefield is 25 or 30 (I did this one early because I didn't realize they scale) but ideally I'd like to do the rest at the cap so I get the most valuable item possible.

I did it on my new Rogue a day or so ago, and I got mostly greens as well, with two blue items. The problem, however, wasn't the color, but that 70% of them were 'of the Fortress'. The rest were 'of the Dominator', which is Str/Dex, and 1 item that was 'of the Malicious', or something like that, that was Dex/End.

As a Runebreaker, it's fine, as I can just turn them in to mats for crafting, but it would still be nice to get something other than 'of the Fortress' all the bloody time.

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.

They really could use a big influx of new goodies in the itemization end of things. Magic items are really dull and mundane (and pretty goddamned rare, at least for anything worth using).

This might just be a Good Thing. I hate the idea that there is gear you just *have* to have at any level, as opposed to having mostly mundane gear you augment with runes and temporary buffs (scrolls, potions, etc.).

"I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." -- Voltaire"A world without Vin Diesel is sad." -- me

If all gear is going to have the same stats and just more, there is no reason to even have them. Might as well just be level 25 tank chestpiece, level 40 tank chiestpiece etc etc. Rift seemed to want all those neat consumables to be a big thing but they are all on the same timer and most dont seem very useful, or at least more useful than using a potion.